furniture

I have a small shop and a small budget, so as I slowly grow my shop I have finally came to the topic of jointery and furniture making so I have my list narrowed down to purchasing the Incra iBox and a nice dado blade (suggestions on blades gladly appreciated) or a nice router and router table set up or keep saving up for a grizzly bandsaw. any and all suggestions welcomed

10 comments so far

If you are budget minded, stay away from Incra. That can come later.Buy a medium duty router and build a RT with a board and a hole through it clamped to your workbench.Dado blades are nice when they are quality. Get a good set or just postpone and use your new router.Bandsaws are nice. Don’t buy less than a 14 inch or you will buy again. Keep checking Craigslist.I worked for years with just a Tablesaw and a router. Your can build a lot of stuff with those two.

You could always go the hand tool route. Buy some handsaws, planes, and chisels. Not my cup of tea, but a lot of people love the serenity of this. It can be expensive this way too if you don’t have a plan.

So much to do, best to pick a project first and buy tools to make it.Steve

I’ve heard woodworkers that rave about a certain tool (a must have for your shop!) and I’ve never used one, so I’m not sure if I should feel stupid because I don’t build that way or I should be proud of the fact I really don’t need that tool to do my type of woodworking.

Thank you all for your suggestions they are all greatly greatly accepted, so the clear choice for now is a RT, any suggestions on building it, weather or not I should make a rougher lift or buy one, and what kind of accessoriesshod I out fit it with, and most importantly the router its self. Thank you everybody so much.

I share you fascination with the I box. It’s one of those toys I’m going to get after I get a news table saw. I am still torn on which to do first: purchase a track saw (and which one) or buy the sawstop TS.

I have decided to do both, but that is expensive. I am a professional carpenter, but not a professional master woodworker. Fine joinery will be a hobby for me.

So what the heck Boxes won’t be my thing, but box joints need to be a part of my repertoire. So Incra will get a few federal reserve notes from me.

I like fancy jigs. :-)

But then again… I just took my first visit to woodcrafters. I could have spent 20 grand in there just “getting started”.

There is also joy to be found in perfecting your own jigs. I have seen more than one tutorial for a box joint jig and they look fairly straightforward.

I will say this. I just met zebra wood in person for the first time. I think I really like her.

I build furniture for money and have for some time. My main tools are tablesaw, miter saw,router with plunge base and fixed mounted under a table, portable thickness planer, biscuit cutter, jig saw, circular saw, drills, bench drill press, random orbit sander. There are other tools that I would like and will get some day, but don’t really need.

-- Bill M. I love my job as a firefighter, but nothing gives me the satisfaction of running my hand over a project that I have built and just finished sanding.

I have a Freud Dado set and one from Harbor Freight. The chippers on the HF set are not as smooth, but the price was great. There are several good books on joinery and you can watch Andyboy’s video. If you check out Amazon you can find the books and reviews.